For some unknown reason I tuned in to The Early Show on television this morning. I usually don’t watch shows like that or Today at all, though I do get up early to watch Sunday Morning. A story today that I found interesting was about a couple, Alex and Donna Voutsinas http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/17/earlyshow/living/main6591229.shtml. (I don’t know how long that link will be live.) A few days before their wedding they were astonished to find a 1980 family photo of little Donna at Walt Disney World — and incredibly little Alex in a stroller being pushed by his dad in the background. Cue Twilight Zone music.
In my own family there is a similar coincidence, I think. My mom’s maiden name is Eaton. There were Eatons on the Mayflower. As far as we know our line doesn’t descend directly from them but from one of the Eatons who came shortly afterwards and who settled in Watertown, outside of Boston. My dad’s family, the Philbricks, arrived in the colonies in the early 1630s and also settled in Watertown before resettling in New Hampshire. In the 1630s the population of Watertown, second in size only to Boston at the time, had to have been small enough that the Philbricks and the Eatons must have known each other. I find it serendipitous that 3oo years later descendants of the two families should meet and marry.
One More Good Adventure 